future father wrote:
My wife and I are planning on starting to have kids in the near future. My wife wants to start trying now, but I'm wondering if it would make sense to wait a few months until I can get back in shape so that I'm passing along the best possible running genes.
(sorry if this is a dumb question...I'm not a science guy)
I say yes for two reasons.
One gender selection. Studies and anecdotes indicate that Marathon/long distance training in fathers is correlated to the conception of daughters. I remember telling my non runner friend about this a long time ago randomly and he was amazed, he was like, "yeah my kid sister was born when my Dad was training for a marathon"
Second, it's always a good idea to be prepared and put your best foot forward before conceiving and starting a family, for reasons of both process and genetics/epigenetics.
Delaying conception like you stated would impact epigenetics. Overtraining might lower sperm quality. I'd say, train hard to your satisfaction, then taper a bit and then conceive